Disappearing Disciplines: Degree Programs Fight for Their Lives

Would you like to major in anthropology at Florida State University? Sorry: The department stopped accepting new students last year. What about economics at the University of Louisiana at Monroe? That major is also going out of business. Computational physics at Oregon State? Circling the drain. Critics sometimes grumble that American universities’ curricula constantly metastasize and never shrink. But that hasn’t been true in this recession. Dozens of majors and doctoral programs have been suspended or terminated since last year, and many more have been under the shadow of the guillotine.